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This is another small GUI application, in the System menu. It is intended to be a manager of system "events" in Puppy. By the word "events" I mean a range of system-level happenings, like kernel uevents and periodic saves from RAM to flash memory.

If Puppy is installed to Flash memory, the PUPMODE is usually 13. In fact, any odd number means that Puppy is working in RAM and needs to save the session to the drive. There would normally be a desktop 'save' icon to do this manually, and it also happens at shutdown. In the case of PUPMODEs 3, 7 and 13 this save also occurs periodically.

Up until now, this periodic save is every 30 minutes, however I have now set the default to never. There is now a configuration file, /etc/eventmanager, which has RAMSAVEINTERVAL=0 where '0' is the default value and means no periodic save. This parameter is in minutes.

The new GUI application, Puppy Event Manager (/usr/sbin/eventmanager), for now only has the one operation, it allows the RAMSAVEINTERVAL to be changed. It allows any value from 5 - 9999 minutes, or 0 (never).

The event daemon, /sbin/pup_eventd, reads this parameter at startup of X and saves to Flash memory accordingly. Note that as pup_eventd is launched when X starts, a change of RAMSAVEINTERVAL requires a restart of X to take effect.

Note, I have excluded PUPMODE 77, the multisession DVD mode, from this and it remains manual via the desktop 'save' icon and at shutdown.

Posted on 23 May 2008, 9:08

Comments:

Posted on 23 May 2008, 12:44 by dogoneDefaut to never?Barry, It's early days certainly, but is it wise for Puppy to default to never saving? The current 30 default might be safer.

Posted on 23 May 2008, 17:25 by BarryKRe: default to neverSee the previous blog post, where feedback requested this.

Posted on 23 May 2008, 19:39 by ICPUGPuppy DefaultsIt seems to me there are at least two mutually exclusive groups of Puppians.

The first group are techie/developers.
The second group are your average user.

These two groups have quite different ideas as to what the defaults should be.

This was noticeable with the discussion on whether the touchpad tap to click default was off or on. It is also true with whether you automount or not. I suspect the same discussions will occur for the default for saving?

Who is Puppy for? If the average user is amongst the target audience then the defaults have to cater them, unless we really want them to change their behaviour (which we might with regard to automounting!). I justify this conclusion on the fact techies are more capable of being able to change the default than the average user.

Posted on 23 May 2008, 21:29 by KJpuppy defaultsI agree with ICPUG. I consider myself more of an average user than a techie but I also an interested in some unusual features.

I would dearly enjoy a puppy that only saves when, where and IF I request a save. No save even a shutdown unless I agree to a "save session". I only bring my kits up for use and most of that use is for surfing or online work with no local save needed so why take a chance something slipping thru and wrecking my system. A warning that memory is getting full or "time to save" would be nice to keep my out of trouble.

Looking forward to all the updates and improvements.

Thanks BerryK for all the thought and effort you have put into this Puppy. You are quite the breeder of a fine line of champions.

KJ

Posted on 23 May 2008, 24:20 by dogoneAn Enhanced Save IconI'm comfortable with the default to never save if something reminds me of that default. A couple of thoughts.

1. The Save icon could change to indicate auto save status.

2. The Save icon could bring up a configuration dialog. This could also offer a 'session' option.